Truth hurts, play with people’s fantasies

Nobody wants to hear the truth. Truth is hard, ugly, and unpleasant. People love fantasies.

Why do you think we love Marvel movies and how Matt Damon should be brought back from Mars. Interstellar is my favorite movie but again it’s based on fantasies and dreams. To live in space. To travel to heavenly places where a sea wave achieves a height as tall as of the mountain. It calls to our inner self that wants to live a life like that.

Tell me. Daily rigorous training and 6 meals a day for 2 years OR supplements and steroids for 2 months with less workout. Which one are you going to choose? Be honest. Exactly. Some people will choose the first one but that my friend, needs great will power. This is us. Humans. We want it very bad but we hate the truth. We fear it. We want the shortcut, the easy way out. But that never lasts long. And soon enough that illusion breaks to drag you down even lower from where you started.

The city-state of Venice was prosperous for so long that its citizens felt their small republic had destiny on its side. The opening of the New World transferred power to the Atlantic side of Europe — to the Spanish and the Portuguese, and later the Dutch and the English. Venice couldn’t compete economically and gradually dwindled. Noble families went broke in Venice and banks begin to fold.

In 1589 rumors began to swirl around around Venice of a mysterious man called “Il Bragadino”, a master of Alchemy, a man of incredible wealth through his ability. A man who could multiply gold through the use of a secret substance. Members of Venice’s most important noble families went to Brescia, where Bragadino lived. The senate invited him to Venice promising a mountain of money, but only if he came right away. Late that year Bragadino arrived in Venice. He took up residence in the sumptuous palace on the island of the Giudecca, with the republic funding his banquets, his expensive clothes and all his other whims.

The alchemist seemed to be in no hurry to manufacture the gold that would save Venice from the ruin. Months went by, with gifts pouring in to Bragadino from all sides. People began to lose patience and asked Bragadino to produce the gold. Bragadino made up a story and said that it will take 7 more years for the gold process. But the people demanded a proof of his skills and that too soon. Bragadino responded that Venice had betrayed him and that he will never return to Venice. He left town, going first to nearby Padua, then, in 1590, to Munich, at the invitation of the Duke of Bravia, who, like the entire city of Venice, had known great wealth but had fallen into bankruptcy through his own profligacy, and hoped to gain his fortune through the famous alchemist’s services. And so Bragadino resumed the comfortable arrangement he had known in Venice, and the same pattern repeated itself.

The young Cypriot Mamugná had lived in Venice for several years before reincarnating himself as the alchemist Bragadino. While other mastered everyday cons, Mamugná mastered human nature. At first he did not show any physical demonstrations to convince people of his alchemic skills. His reputation was enough for that. The key to power is to never take to the level where people can grab it, touch it, or feel it. It should be an imagination and not a demonstration.

Power comes to those who are a source of pleasure for those around you. Target to people’s fantasies. Truth is ugly and people will ignore it.

In a relationship do we stay completely loyal. It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship is it, if we stay completely honest we lose the person. You won’t have any friends let alone enemies. This era is personality based. People want quick fixes. We don’t want to work hard. We want a lot by investing a lot less. But you and I know it doesn’t work that way. You cannot be rich while being honest at the same time. You cannot sell that product without bending the truth.

Don’t take this post as an initiative for debauchery and fraud. Don’t do drugs. Don’t do fraud. The whole point of this article is to show the ways to rise to power. You may not apply this technique to any aspect of life and be honest. But then don’t cry about being mediocre. With greater power comes greater responsibilities. You create enemies. You need to be more careful to use the power in right direction. Use the power to raise even higher.

Remember: Don’t demonstrate. It should be imaginary and never physical. Play with their fantasies.

One last thing: Never make the mistake of imagining that the fantasy is always fantastical. It certainly contrasts with reality, but reality itself is sometimes so theatrical and stylized that fantasy becomes a desire for simple things. The image Abraham Lincoln created of himself, for example, as a homespun country lawyer with a beard, made him the common man’s President.